PvdA

Victims of sexual violence in the Netherlands no longer have to pay healthcare deductibles when they incur medical costs. With this one year long experiment, the Dutch government wants to find out whether free care will lower the threshold for seeking help, NOS reports.

Victims can go to a Center for Sexual Violence to get help. These are usually connected to hospitals' emergency room. The Centers perform trace evidence investigation, but they also offer psychological help and tests for venereal diseases.

Dutch Queen Maxima has been accused of tax evasion in Argentine media. According to investigative website El Cohete a la Luna, Maxima does not report the correct value of her possessions in Patagonia, in the west of Argentina, to the tax authorities. Dutch parliamentarians are demanding an explanation from Prime Minister Mark Rutte, AD reports.

The coalition parties' talks on relaxing the children's pardon seems to be at a stalemate. After two meetings with State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security on Monday, the parliamentary leaders of the VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie still have not come to a solution. CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie want the rules on the deportation of child asylum seekers to be broadened, the VVD is refusing, NOS reports.

This year five large political parties will participate in the Pride Amsterdam canal parade in one boat. In this way the VVD, CDA, D66, SP and PvdA want to show that they stand together to support the LGBTQ community, NU.nl reports.

GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver is demanding that the coalition parties support his legislative proposal for a CO2 tax, in exchange for his party's support on new cabinet plans. "The question is not whether we will help the government to a majority, but whether the coalition will help our plans to a majority", he said at a meetup in The Hague on Monday evening, NOS reports.

On Saturday coalition party CDA announced that the party wants to extend the children's pardon, joining the D66 and ChristenUnie who have been calling for this for some time. The VVD is now the only one of the four coalition parties who wants to stick to the agreement made in the Rutte III coalition agreement, which states that the previous government's children's pardon will remain unchanged, the Volkskrant reports.

Deliveroo wrongly classifies its delivery workers as freelancers, a Dutch court ruled on Tuesday in two cases filed by union FNV. There is an employment contract, which means that deliverers should be considered employees and be covered by the collective bargaining agreement for professional goods transport, the court ruled, NU.nl reports.

The court ruled that delivery workers can now claim employment and that Deliveroo must apply the collective bargaining agreement retroactively. Deliveroo announced that it will appeal against the ruling.

Ruling party VVD is putting a brake on the climate measures in the climate agreement, which was signed in December. Party leader Klaas Dijkhoff does not want "ordinary people" to carry the bill for the climate measures. "It is not my agreement", VVD leader Klaas Dijkhoff said in an interview with the Telegraaf on Saturday. "I'm not going to do it."

The PvdA wants to ban special schools from refusing pupils. Labor leader Lodewijk Asscher submitted a legislative proposal that will anchor the freedom of education in the Constitution. If it is up to him, pupils will have the right to education, and schools will have an obligation to accept them, NOS reports.

A large majority in the lower house of Dutch parliament supports the government's intention to sign the United Nations' new migration pact next week, was revealed in a debate on the matter on Tuesday.

In addition to coalition parties VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie, the pact is also supported by GroenLinks, PvdA and DENK, NU.nl reports PVV, 50Plus, SGP and FvD are against the pact. They fear that migrants may derive new rights form the pact. PvdD and SP are still considering.

Football analyst Johan Derksen is again under fire about statements he made, this time for comments made about gay people on Veronica Inside. "We just have to stop saying its so hard to come out of the closet. If you have a bit of character, you just come out", he said. The remark has since turned into the viral hashtag #SorryJohan with over 17 thousand posts on Twitter, RTL Nieuws reports.

A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, supports a proposal by ruling party VVD to build more nuclear power plants in the Netherlands. Opponents worry about nuclear waste and what it will mean for future generations, NOS reports.

The VVD proposal was supported by the VVD, PVV, CDA and FvD. Proponents believe that the Netherlands can not afford to outright reject nuclear energy. But they also point out the disadvantages - nuclear waste, the construction of a nuclear plant is a long process, and it is an expensive source of energy.

The funeral for former Prime Minister Wim Kok will be held on Saturday, followed by a commemoration service in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw that same afternoon. Both services are for invited guests only, NU.nl reports.

Others who want to express their condolences can do so in an online condolence register. Letters and flowers are also welcome and can be sent to the funeral home.

Former Prime Minister Wim Kok (PvdA) passed away after a long illness, his family revealed on Saturday. Over the weekend King Willem-Alexander and various politicians responded to his death. Kok was a well respected man to whom the Netherlands owes a great deal of gratitude, was the general theme of their reactions.

Former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok has died at the age of 80 years old after fighting a lengthy illness. He became the country's leader following the election in 1994, when he led Labour (PvdA) into a coalition with the conservative VVD and centrist D66 parties.

"Wim Kok was a man worth looking up to," said current Prime Minister Mark Rutte. "Completely reliable, perfectly honest and always focused on a solution," Rutte said of Kok. "He was a man with a great sense of responsibility who placed high demands on himself and on those people who worked with him."

The new plans of the Rutte III government now that dividend tax will not be abolished, can not count on the support of the opposition parties, was revealed during a parliamentary debate on Tuesday evening. The opposition parties were all clearly irritated, NU.nl reports.

The abolition of the dividend tax will definitely not happen, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced after a coalition meeting on Monday evening. The government and the coalition parties reconsidered and decided to definitively reverse the most controversial measure in the government agreement. "The fact is that support for this measure was limited", Rutte said after the meeting, NU.nl reports.

The famous I Amsterdam letters on the Museumplein have to go, according to a motion filed by the GroenLinks faction in Amsterdam. The slogan has become a symbol for mass tourism, the party finds. The motion seems to have support from the D66, PvdA and SP - a majority in the city council, Het Parool reports.

With the motion, GroenLinks asked the office of mayor and aldermen to remove the I Amsterdam letters from the whole city and to stop all city marketing activities under the slogan of I Amsterdam.

Alexander Pechtold is resigning as leader of the parliamentary faction of the D66, he announced at the party congress in Den Bosch on Saturday. The party will choose a successor on Tuesday. It is "time for a new generation", Pechtold said n his farewell speech, NU.nl reports.

The Netherlands was well aware of human rights violations committed by Syrian rebel movement Jabhat al-Shamiya when the country started offering them logistical support, Nieuwsuur and Trouw report based on emails sent between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and human rights organization Amnesty International in the summer of 2016.

A former group leader of youth care institution Hoenderloo Groep in Apeldoorn appeared in court on Monday on charges of forcing an underage girl at the institution into prostitution. The PvdA will ask parliamentary questions about this case, Omroep Gelderland reports.

PVV leader Geert Wilders put forward a proposal to ban all forms of Islamic expressions in the Netherlands during the first day of the General Considerations, the parliamentary debate on the government's plans and budget for the next year, on Wednesday. The proposal was immediately shot down by the other parties, NU.nl reports.